How is it the last week in May already? It really is ridiculous how fast time flies isn’t it? BUT June is right around the corner which means it will officially be my birthday month. I like to celebrate all month because well one day is just not enough…ha! I love birthdays!! They make me happy and I love celebrating another year lived. Others don’t seem to share my love of the getting older celebration. Which side of the birthday camp do you fall on?

So Sunday we had not one but two picnic parties (one to celebrate my Baptism!). The weather was beautiful and I so love sitting around a camp fire watching it glow. Very relaxing!

This picture has nothing to do with menu planning but one of our get togethers yesterday was out on a farm and I thought this guy was just so cute :)

Here are a few more responses to the question I asked a couple of weeks ago – “what is one thing you do to ensure menu planning success week after week?”. Hope they inspire you!

I’m successful if I write out a monthly menu at the beginning of the month, and then review and tweak each week. I also make time during the week for different types of batch cooking to ensure I have what I need to make the meals. @ A Life in Balance

Having a consistent and dedicated time during my week that I can devote my time to planning my menu. Also, blogging every week about my menu has helped me stay on the menu plan ban wagon. I’m amazed at how much I now love menu planning. :) Also, finding new recipes to try helps keep things fresh and new. @ Simply My Kitchen

What I do to keep my meals planned, is that I actually take time to DO IT! If I just “wing it” based on what I have on hand?…it will NEVER get done and it’ll be another day of eating out! Not to mention the expense and the expansion of our waistlines! SO…I make sure that before I take the trip to the store I have both the menu plan AND a shopping list!! That way, I am able to post the plan on the fridge and I actually buy the groceries needed for those recipes! It also means I don’t have to go back and get the stuff I “forgot” and I actually SAVE money because I am not picking up expensive extras! This is where Menu Plan Monday has SAVED me! I come every week for ideas from Orgjunkie and everyone’s blogs and I am able to put together very “tasty” and wholesome menus. Even my teens appreciate the food! Yes, sometimes I can go “winging it”, but the food is just better when I have a PLAN!!!! Sometimes this process can take an hour…BUT it is ALL worth it! @ Elizabeth

I think the key to menu planning for me is making it easy. I keep links to favorite and “want to try” recipes in an excel file that is organized like a cookbook (breakfasts, lunches, dinner entrees- pork, dinner entrees- poultry, desserts, soups, etc.) and I use another file to make the menu including breakfasts and lunches (both hubs and I work from home so that I really need to plan on having lunches here at the house.) When I sit down to make my menu, I just carry over any meals that didn’t get used the week before (since the groceries are already bought) and then fill in the blanks. @ Crafty Hope

Key to menu planning – taking enough time to plan quality meals. I can whip up a week of meals in no time, but I’m pretty sure my family doesn’t want to eat pasta for 7 nights straight. ;) By taking my time to plan meals with good taste & flavor, variety and what they like to eat, I’m much more likely to have clean plates each night. @ Don’t Waste the Crumbs

Success in menu planning only comes when the family actually eats the meals, so I make what I believe is a varied menu filled with things they like. @ Cheap Thrills in Omaha

Meal planning got easier for me once I started doing it on google calendar. I set meals to repeat, so there are always ideas on there, and I paste in links or entire recipes when I find one I want to try. I also often use this as a starting point: pasta on Monday, soup on Tuesday, grain/meat/veggie Wednesday, suer easy/from the freezer or leftovers/big salad Thursday, Fri or Sat takeout, ideally my husband is responsible for Sunday. @ Julie

Congrats on your Baptism! I love having birthdays; in fact, I’m kind of selfish about them, so I have to watch myself in how carried away I get. But my husband does a good job making much of me, and wish me happy birthday every day for about a week, haha. I’m link #86, and I posted our frugal whole foods menu and the beginning of my quest for the perfect homeamde granola bars. Thanks for hosting!

I shared my menu for the last week of the month. I need to get my June menu together which will hopefully have quick meal ideas for the 1st 2 weeks while the school year ends, and then I can get back into more cooking.

This meal plan link up is a great idea. I’m hoping I can get some inspiration from everyone’s menus. We are in need of some new ideas over here. But I don’t seem to be able to link up. I tried last night and again this morning. It may be a problem with my VPN though. (I’m in China.) Anyway, thanks for hosting!

My view on birthdays is that it’s great to have a day to celebrate ME (but don’t focus too much on what the number actually is – in fact, if you ask me how old I am, I generally have to quickly calculate it in my head from my year of birth because I’m really not fussed about the number!).

Thanks for hosting Menu Plan Monday – I’m not linking at the moment, but I love seeing the range of plans.

My birthday month is coming to an end! LOL! Living in a house full of boys, they are not always the best at planning things for me, but that’s okay! My request for my “birthday dinner” was not to go out to a restaurant, but for them to make a birthday dinner for me. Hamburgers and steak on the grill with roasted veggies. It was fabulous! My husband did most of the work, and it was hard for me not to intervene, but we had a wonderful dinner together! :)

I just realized, I left my recent comment to you on LAST weeks post… I meant to leave it here…

Anyway, I wanted to let you know that ’m planning to be link to your Menu Plan Monday on Thursday from the Birds Eye Vegetables Facebook page as I’m being their community manager for the day. I will be recommending Menu Plan Monday as a helpful way to save money on groceries by planning out meals.